VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 Level with me will ya???

I've been running a dry air filter in my oil bath housing because I feel it filters better. I decided that since the only dirt road I go down is the 100 yards between my house and the highway and in an attempt to return more to original I put the oil bath, copper gauze, canister back in and put the required 16 OZ of oil in the bottom. I didn't realize that the housing is not level until I poured the oil into it. The oil runs to one side of the housing, leaving the other side without proper oiling of the copper gauze. I checked the carb and while it's mounted correctly to the manifold, it's not level. The way the filter housing mounts to the carb it's impossible to get it level with the carb not being level. Has anyone dealt with this before and if so how did you fix it? Even if you've not dealt with the issue I'm open to suggestions. Ideas?

Hello Tiny.

Bear with me for a minute and understand I am just rambling on a bit.
Not familiar with your 38, but is the distance equa-distance all the way around from the bottom of the throat to the bottom of the air cleaner?? Is your air cleaner clamped at throat or does it have bracket attached from air cleaner to somewhere else??
Can't remember what particular cars they were, but if not equa-distance, possibly throat off set a bit so rotating it around would level it up??? That thought would be eliminated if bracket used to attach air cleaner to something else. I know you said that the way air cleaner attaches, there is no way to level it up so maybe I'm just talking nonsense.
My 48 has a different air cleaner on it although it is oil bath, and when filling it, just filled it to full mark and put it on engine. Never gave it a thought about being level. Will check mine in daylight to see what gives with level.
Hope someone else can give you a definitive answer.

Jim.

Mine is level. The top is just under the bar that holds the radiator in place and if the air cleaner were not level it would be at an angle to that bar. Mine is parallel. In looking at the mounting I don't see how it could not be level.

Brian

The housing clamps to the top of the air horn using a built in band clamp. <CLICK> <Fig. 83 shows my housing & clamp> It fastens only to the air horn. When I lay a torpedo level across the air horn, it's high on the engine side and the radiator side. Not by much but by enough that the oil runs to the outer/aft part of the housing, leaving the front/inner side without oil. It's out of level about 1/16" across the air horn. I've tried turning the housing but it's the same on all sides. I've tried leveling the housing and getting the clamp as tight as I can but that puts the band clamp on a slight angle to the air horn and the first bump sends it back to un-level. I suppose I could slightly over fill the housing so that the "up" side gets oil but would that cause the oil on the over filled side to be sucked into the engine. Hmmmmmm If it doesn't start smoking from sucking in the oil I might be OK.

Tiny:
I checked "Old Blue" and she too is level. Is the valve cover top level? The thought occurs to me that may be the engine itself is not quite plumb???? Maybe a slightly loose motor mount????
37Blue

Actually 1/16" across the airhorn transforms to quite a bit from the front motor mounts back to the rear attachment of the engine and transmission, assuming that the clutch,transmission and bell housing, the installiation of the intake, exhaust manifolds, and the carb base is correct and are are in alignment. I always use the level of the airhorn to mount the engine and transmission to the correct front to rear and side to side alignment when installing the engine transmission combo because some of the cars and trucks with a inline six are only at the correct level when the top of the carb airhorn is level. I am not so familar with your car but I am going by a 49-54 car and truck, and the Chevrolet V/8 engines. I hope we are helping with your problem, if we are not helping with the solution to the problem it seems to me that we may be conributeing to the problem.......

How do we know if the floor is level must garage floors have a slope to help get rid of water? I would think that if you wanted to the oil level to be right level the cleaner service to the level you want and the put it back on the Carb and that is it as you drive the car is not always level. Just remember I may not know what I'm talking about. Just trying to help.

I think that you are worried about nothing. First when you are driving the road is seldom level. 99 and 9/10 percent of the filtering action of an oil bath air cleaner is the incoming "particles" follow the air flow and drop down into the oil. Normal driving motions will coat the filtering element with oil at on time or another. As long as its filled with the recommended #50 oil the oil won't exactly be splashing around. Just drive and enjoy

Gene,

Just a clairification. I do not use the original dry type air filter that came with my '37. I have what I believe may be a truck oil bath filter that I found on ebay. It is about the same physical size as the dry filter that came with the car. Anyway, I just fill to the "oil line" with standard engine oil. If I understand your comment, I should be using 50 weight oil, is that correct?

Rich

The manual says 50 in the "summer months" and 30 in the winter. I laid a level on the garage floor and it's level. I may indeed be worrying about nothing. Time will tell.

Just for fun, if you lay the level on the engine, is it at the same angle as the filter?

Brian

Yes there are a lot of factors you have to contend with, uneven springs, unlevel floors, different tires, more or less air pressure, different engine mounts, twisted frames, bla, bla, bla.. But you should do as good a job as you can to get the engine and transmission aligned as well as you can.

......Besides, us flatlanders notice things like an unlevel car air cleaner. :vcca:

Tiny,

Thanks for the information. I do clean the oil bath filter frequently and the oil is dirty and there is a thin layer of crud on the bottom of the filter. This is way better than the dry screen unit that came with the car. I think I will just stick with what I am doing.

Rich

Gene, I also found out that the oil bath air cleaner gets the wick re-oiled when the car backfires thru the carb, or you turn a corner too fast on two wheels....I guess that is what happens. Anyway oil has been known to run down the outside of some guy's air cleaner...Of course it never happens to one of my "well tuned" professionally driven Chevrolets! :vcca:

The general sloshing of the oil is designed to automatically clean the filtering media. The dust ends up in the oil and the heavy particles settle to the bottom. The beauty part of it is even if the oil isn't changed for a long period of time the air passage remains unrestricted.
The small amount of dust the average filter picks up today is nothing compared to years ago when there were many unpaved roads, dust storms,etc.

Hi, I have just returned from wandering around the Deserts of Australia so I'm a bit late on this but you never know.The motor in a "38" sits flat. The motors in say a "48" sit nose up.As a result the top of the inlet manifold where the carb sits is cast differently. The "38" is flat whereas the "48" is on an angle. If you have a later inlet manifold on a "38" the carb will lean forward.
I realised this because my "38" has a "48" motor and had to use the "38" manifold to get the carb to sit right.

I guess that is a good explaniation. I thought the 235 was the first Chevy engine to sit at a slant. Live and learn!

That was a new "feature"for 1940. They lowered the floor and this lower rear of the engine allowed less of a drive line hump in the floor.
The original question noted that the engine seemed to be leaning sideways though.